


What The Years Have Done To Us

by missjo



Category: Downton Abbey
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-03
Updated: 2014-10-03
Packaged: 2018-02-19 16:45:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2395553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missjo/pseuds/missjo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Someone, I forget who, mentioned Thommy meeting again in a bomb shelter and I just had to write a thing (please step forward and take credit for your amazing prompt!). I hurried to finish it before I leave for the weekend so please excuse any mistakes!</p>
            </blockquote>





	What The Years Have Done To Us

“There we are, m’lady,” Thomas said gently as Lady Sybil took the seat he had found for her in the dingy bomb shelter.

She gave him a smile that reminded him so much of her mother that his heart physically ached from it. “Thank you, Barrow. I suppose we should have waited to leave Grantham House after all. I am sorry.”

“No harm done, m’lady. I’m sure it will pass soon,” he told her kindly.

He looked at the spot on the floor beside Lady Sybil’s chair and felt his bones groan at the thought. Perhaps it would be better to stand.

“Thomas?”

Thomas’s heart skipped a beat at the sound of a voice he hadn’t heard in years. He turned just as the bombs began falling above them. Jimmy Kent stood there in a clean suit with his cap in one hand; as real as the day he had left Downton. Thomas’s mouth went dry at the sight of him.

He had lost some weight since the last time Thomas had seen him and his hair was beginning to thin somewhat but he still had the same beautiful, expressive face he found himself missing so often. Jimmy seemed to be studying him too. Thomas suddenly wished he hadn’t lost his hat in the scuffle; it would have covered his salt and pepper hair. He knew he looked older.

“You look well, Thomas,” Jimmy proclaimed after a long moment of silence. He gave him a shy smile.

“Jimmy,” Thomas blurted out when he was finally able to speak. He took a few steps further away from Lady Sybil. “So do you. What brings you to London?”

Jimmy ran a hand through his thinning hair self consciously. “I--I’m not sure if I ever told you that I have a son?” He winced.

The two of them had kept up a correspondence since Jimmy had left, they had even met for a drink in 1931, but over time their letters had started arriving further and further apart. These days, Thomas was happy with a letter on his birthday and another on Christmas. Yet through all the years of letter writing Jimmy had neglected to mention he had a family. The knowledge of it now was like a kick to his gut.

“You didn’t,” he managed to choke out.

“He’s five this year,” Jimmy told him, pride lighting up his face. “His mother didn’t want t’marry me, y’see, and took up with some other bloke after he were born but I still get to see him now and again. I was comin’ to take him out of the city until all this is over. His mother has to stay in London for work.”

Jimmy had a child but he wasn’t married. Thomas’s brain was spinning trying to keep up.

“Oh.” He glanced around for a sight of Jimmy’s son.

“Ah. The bombs delayed me,” Jimmy explained when he noticed Thomas looking. He nodded and took a step closer to Thomas, his grey eyes studying him again. “You do look so well. I’m glad.”

Thomas swallowed. Jimmy was wearing the same cologne he had worn at Downton. It was making him dizzy with nostalgia.

“Have you been happy?” Jimmy asked with sincerity that Thomas had seldom seen him possess.

“A few times. It’s never stuck,” he replied honestly and fished out his pack of cigarettes. He offered one to Jimmy without thinking of it and lit them both.

Jimmy shuffled until he was standing shoulder to shoulder with him. “I’m sorry to hear that. I don’t like to think of you lonely, Thomas.”

Thomas smiled and ducked his head. “I manage.”

“I’m sure you do.” Jimmy smirked around a drag. “Why haven’t the family left London? Surely they still have somewhere safer and more quiet to go. Their sort usually do.”

“They’re leaving today. Lady Sybil wanted to get a head start,” he explained with a soft smile. “We were only a few blocks from the station when the siren sounded.”

It was surreal, standing beside Jimmy as they smoked and talked; if Thomas closed his eyes they could be back in the servant’s hall at Downton. He tried it. The sound of another bomb exploding above them brought him back to the present quickly enough.

“What were the chances? Of us ending up in the same bomb shelter, I mean,” Jimmy asked and turned to look at him.

“Pretty slim, I should think.”

Jimmy smiled. “Well I’m glad of it.”

He seemed to hesitate for a second before he reached down and took Thomas’s gloved hand in his own. Thomas’s heart fluttered in his chest when Jimmy squeezed it. His palm felt warm.

“Jimmy--”

“No one’s watchin’ us,” Jimmy said firmly and squeezed his hand again.

“Yes, but--”

“Shh-- I’ve waited years to say this and thought maybe I never would, but with the world as it is I’ve realized I’ve got to or I’ll regret it,” Jimmy said, cutting him off again. “I’ve been a fool me whole life and no bigger a one than with you, Thomas. I loved you and I couldn’t see it. Then I lost you because of m’own stupidity and then I couldn’t say it. I’ve spent years keeping it out of my letters because I was certain you’d moved on or-or that you should have been doing so. But I do-- I do love you, Thomas,  _truly_.”

Thomas gaped at him, cigarette forgotten.

“And now-- and now I’m goin’ t’do somethin’ I should’ve done all those years ago. Just so I can say I did it the once.”

Thomas could hear Jimmy take a steadying breath and then his warm, slightly chapped lips were pressed against his own. They lingered just long enough before Jimmy pulled back, blushing, and hung his head.

“Ah-- that were--” he mumbled and played with his cap.

The all clear alarm rang through then, cutting off their moment quite cleanly. Thomas turned his head to spot Lady Sybil waiting for him.

“Write to me where you’ll be stayin’,” he told Jimmy in a rush. “We’ll be back in York. Downton Place.”

Jimmy grinned. “‘Course. We’ll be near enough to York. Perhaps we can meet on your half day. You can meet my boy.”

There was so much hope in Jimmy’s eyes. Thomas smiled. “That sounds nice, Jimmy.”

“I’m ready to leave for the station, Barrow,” Lady Sybil said in her kind but firm way as she came to join them.

Thomas turned to her. “Yes, of course, m’lady. I’m sorry, I was catching up with Jimmy Kent. He used to be a footman at Downton when you were still a little girl.”

Lady Sybil smiled politely. “How nice. It’s lovely to meet you, Jimmy.”

Jimmy slammed his cap back on his head and bowed as a footman should to a lady. “Your ladyship.”

“I’ll hear from you soon, Jimmy,” Thomas said with a nod and turned his attention back to his charge. “Shall we, m’lady?”

As he led Lady Sybil safely through the crowd Thomas’s heart felt lighter than it had in years.

“He seemed like a nice chap, Barrow. Were the two of you friends once?”

“We still are, m’lady. We keep in touch,” he replied and smiled to himself, feeling much younger than his age. Jimmy’s kiss was still warm upon his lips and he was full of hope.


End file.
